I've been in contact with Hapur. He's been very busy but said he will eventually look in..
Dierk. Thanks for the engraving info/photos. Yes a tool that hasn't changed in many years!!
OK, so we know only a few things for sure! There were 2 patterns. Observing wear characteristics, tone etc. we can tell the material was not exactly the same alloy in the 2 patterns. The skull is a separate piece affixed on later. - Really,,,thats all we know for sure!
The more photos I'm seeing here and around the more I believe there was not one die nor was it pressed. Hapurs rings come out perfect seem like they need little hand finishing.. Evgeniys also don't look like they need to much finishing. But the lost wax cast of back then is not what we have now....
Magnification is good.. Extreme mag can be tricky. Sometimes needing much experience to interpret it.
Die casting isn't really ideal for silver. Sure it was done. I'm sure Gahr could have simply had a die cutter cut a master die and then make working dies to make the rings. But I don't think that was the case. Himmler wanted something special. And I do know of other period jewelers that experimented with different unorthodox manufacture procedures. I'm betting the HR is something unorthodox. Hopefully we will come to some conclusions eventually!
